decide to wish you Thanks. Eugene 
I’m in Love
I am so totally mesmerized by this yarn, I keep showing it to my husband Corey saying “Look, look, isn’t it wonderful/great/gorgeous/shiny/soft/…” Of course he humors me, smiles, and says yes as a good supportive husband would. I do the same when he goes on about the things he obsesses over…
But about that yarn. I just have the hardest time believing I spun that; I created that; That came from my hands. This is the first handspun that I have made that has really felt like real yarn. The others were real yarn, and I knit with them, and it was great, but…This one is a step above the rest. This is yarn.
OK, enough fawning. I spun the singles quite thin, and made what was to be the greatest decision of all, to make a 2-ply out of the resulting yarn. I used the Andean plying method, which involves some complicated wrapping of the yarn around your hand, so you have something that pulls from both ends and doesn’t get tangled in the process of spinning it on your spindle. Only, it did get tangled and quite badly too. I made the unfortunate mistake of not washing the singles to set the twist before plying. When I got to about the middle of the plying I was having a hell of a time trying to pull out the singles without tangles, and I even had a few breaks. Lesson learned.
The fiber is a beautifully dyed 50/50 merino silk with coppers, whites, silvery grays, black grays, and tons of other striations throughout. I love the subtle blending of the colors, and the sheen of the final yarn is amazing. It’s slightly exaggerated in the photo, as I was trying to tweak it a bit to get it as close as possible to the true colors. Oh, and why was plying it the greatest decision of all? It seems to have really played up on the shine of the silk, creating more angles for the light to reflect off of it.
I am completely and totally in love. Ridiculously so. I’ve even gone so far as to consider not knitting it, as I love staring at and fondling it. I will knit it, because I know that I will love being able to wear this yarn close to the skin (a spring scarf perhaps?).
April 3rd, 2007 at 7:50 am
That is truely excellent yarn. And those who don’t spin fine, lovely, shiny just don’t get it.
Plying it was exactly the right thing to do, and actually increased its beauty.
A spring scarf? Or mounted in a display box-both would be great options!
-Holly